Groove Juice

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It must have been heaven on earth, when record playing time was limited to only about three minutes per side, as there wasn’t enough space for more on a fragile 78 rpm shellack. The majority of these titles was simply designed for dancing and pure pleasure in late 40s and early 50s territory jukeboxes, most of them pressed in relatively small quantities only and good survivors from way back then are scarce today. Enjoy your Shag-, Lindy-, Balboa- or Boogie-dancing with this collection. To tell it with ‘The Hipster’: “Put a nickel in the slot!”

GROOVE JUICE was played by former Lionel Hampton masterblaster Jack McVea on tenorsax in 1945. He was also ivolved in JATP and recorded a lot on his own. - WALKIN’ is a rare piece by Joe Liggins, who is still famous for his hit version of ‘The Honeydripper’. - MIDNIGHT WITH SAMPSON is one of the early cool tunes by ace-bassman Red Callender who later played and composed complex suites for his doghouse. - Henry Red Allen was someone special, as he was often mentioned as a rival to Louis Armstrong, but Red was more: a great showman and a master of early Rhythm and Blues, IF IT’S LOVE YOU WANT is a blueplate for his style that Louis couldn’t have done ever. - The roaring RED RED WINE was pounded by Milton Buckner, the ‘mighty atom on the keys’ who played in the Lionel Hampton congregation for long years. - Some Jazz by a sophisticated guitarcat? Kenny Burrell was the man on the strings for ALL TORE UP besides King Curtis, Sam ‘The Man’ Taylor and Count Hastings on saxes. - But back to Mr McVea: WINE-O is too good to be missed, although the 2nd tune of this saxman extraordinaire on this platter. - Another very special Jazzman was singer Babs Gonzales, who worked for Hollywood actor Errol Flynn as a chauffeur at daytime, while working the Los Angeles clubs by night. GET OUT OF THAT BED is one of Babs’ rare RnB-moments recorded. - As with Red Rodney, the mainly drug stuffed white Be Bop-Gabriel, who also waxed his kind of RnB with DIG THIS MENUE PLEASE. - Sax-honker Rusty Bryant played with Tiny Grimes and started his own band in 1951. He later made weird funky stuff with ‘Fire Eater’ and countless Boogaloo-recordings, but HANKA BOO, waxed in 1956 for Dot Records, is still a dancefloor filler for very skilled dancers.